Paw Patrol: The Limits of Friendship
by AstralDiv
Summary: The time has come for the most epic challenging adventure the Paw Patrol has to face! In this story, featuring Ryder and the Paw Patrol, they will find that their worst enemies can most definitely be themselves, and each other. All is well until a tragic accident happens. From suspense, adventure, heartbreak, betrayal and more, will this be the Paw Patrol's first failure?
1. Chapter 1: Adventure Bay

The sun was rising over the City Hall in the heart of Adventure Bay. This signaled the beginning of dawn, and the start of a new day, and adventure, for the Paw Patrol Team, and for Adventure Bay as a whole. Another day in the life!

Ryder was the first of the six Paw Patrol members to wake up. Ryder yawned and sat up in his bed.

"Ahhhh," Ryder sighed, getting onto his feet and tossing back his blankets onto the bed. "Another day of patrol work!" he exclaimed, clearly excited for the day. Ryder looked over at the alarm clock on his nightstand.

The clock read, '6:47 a.m.'.

"Hmm," Ryder hummed, putting a hand to his chin while he thought. "Well, it's definitely way too early for any new missions to come in. I better get some work done," he said to himself. He walked over to his dresser and picked up his special Paw Patrol gadget, and turned it on.

The screen flashed a bright blue before displaying the Paw Patrol logo. After a few seconds, it booted to the home screen.

Ryder pressed a button and started up the game 'All-Star Racers'. It seems Ryder's idea of 'working' was playing video games! After all, he was 10 years old, so small spots of immaturity were to be expected. However, Ryder has always been a very calm and collected leader of his organization, the Paw Patrol.

After some time of playing his video games, Ryder decided to take a break and put his gadget onto the nightstand.

"Alright, I better get ready and call the pups in for roll-call." he told himself.

Ryder stood up and took off his pajamas. He then went into his closet and pulled out his white long-sleeved shirt, blue cargo pants, and his official and exclusive Paw Patrol vest, which was red with a secondary blue color, that also included the Paw Patrol logo. This vest was the official marking of the Paw Patrol leader and founder.

He put his clothes on and took a comb, grooming his hair up the way he liked it. Once he was ready and well-dressed, he headed over to his bathroom and brushed his teeth.

"Right, I'm all ready, then," he said to himself. He walked by his nightstand on the way out of his room and grabbed his gadget, pocketing it in his vest.

Ryder pressed the Paw Patrol logo on the gadget which signaled for the team that they were needed.

"Paw Patrol, to the lookout!" Ryder spoke into the microphone of the gadget.

"Ryder needs us!" the pups said, stopping whatever activity that they were currently doing to run off to the lookout. Like usual, Marshall, one of the Paw Patrol team members, was a little clumsy reporting in for duty. This time, he managed to trip and fall into a pillow case of his, as he was sleeping at the time of the call. The other pups had to wait for him to arrive... about 2 minutes late.

"Marshall, where were you?! Ryder needs us up there!" Chase asked him with hesitance.

"I fell again," Marshall explained.

The other pups laughed as the sliding doors closed in front of them, and the platform they were standing on raised up the tower, stopping halfway up behind a huge Paw Patrol logo attached to the tower. In less than 5 seconds, the logo shone in the morning sunshine, and the platform was raised further. As it raised to the top, the pups were visible in their uniforms.

Marshall, the cloud-spotted dalmatian, had a coat of white fur. He had a firefighter suit and hat for his uniform.

Chase, the German Sheppard, had a coat of brown fur with a secondary color of cream. He wore a police officer's suit and hat for his uniform.

Zuma, the Chocolate Labrador, had a coat of dark brown fur. He wears an orange life jacket with an orange helmet for his uniform.

Rubble, the English Bulldog, had a coat of brown/white fur. He wears a yellow jacket and a construction helmet for his uniform.

Rocky, the mixed breed, had a coat of bluish-gray fur. He wears a green jacket with a green/white baseball cap for his uniform.

Skye, the cockapoo, had a coat of light brown/tan fur. She wears a pink jacket with a pair of pilot's goggles for her uniform.

Everest, though not on duty at the moment with the other pups, had a coat of lavender fur. She wears a teal winter coat and a teal snow hat for her uniform. She is currently the only Paw Patrol pup to locate outside of Adventure Bay.

The sliding doors to the lookout opened up and the paws stepped out, following their ordinary routine of lining up in a horizontal line in front of Ryder, who was standing in front of the middle of the line.

"I hope you slept well, pups! I called you here because we're doing our monthly roll call and checkup. We can also expect a new mission to come in today!" Ryder told them.

"Yes sir, Ryder sir!" exclaimed Chase. The other pups smiled and nodded in agreement, glancing over at Chase and then quickly at Ryder.

"Alright pups, please take off your equipment bags and place it over there on our logo," Ryder told them, pointing over to a large red circle with a paw print inside of it in the middle of the floor, the Paw Patrol team logo.

"Yes, Ryder!" said the pups, and they proceeded to pad towards the logo, at the same time they began to remove their gear. Just as they were nearing the middle of the room, Ryder's gadget began to ring.

"Huh, what's this?" Ryder asked. He pulled his gadget out of his vest pocket and held it horizontally, looking at the screen. It showed a small button with the face of Mayor Goodway on it. Ryder pushed the button and the screen showed a visual of Mayor Goodway with a panicked and worried expression on her face.

Mayor Goodway seemed to be acting rather hectic. She was inside of her office in Town Hall as she spoke to Ryder.

"Ryder, I need you and the Paw Patrol down at Town Hall right away. I know I don't normally call you around these hours but this is really urgent! It's Mayor Humdinger again! Oh no, I think he has just been fed up with feeling inferior to Adventure Bay, he- AAHH! Please hurry!"

Mayor Goodway's voice cut off and her camera's feed went dark.

Marshall stepped forward and tilted his head.

"Ryder, what was all of that about? Is Mayor Goodway okay?" asked Marshall, with his head tilted in curiosity. His eyes were full of concern.

"I don't know, Marshall, we'll have to go down to Town Hall and find out right away," answered Ryder. "Pups, to action!" he then shouted.

"Paw Patrol is ready for action, Ryder sir!" Chase shouted in return. The team was already in formation, awaiting their orders.

"Okay, for clarification I'll go over our mission details completely," Ryder said. He pulled out his gadget and slid out the tray from the side, and pressed the button on the panel.

As Ryder spoke, the screen behind him showed a visual of what he was explaining.

"Alright, pups. Mayor Goodway has just given us a call and she seemed to be in trouble. We aren't too sure what the issue is other than the fact that Mayor Humdinger is around again, and we all know that could mean some problems are occurring."

"So, for this mission, I'll be needing..." Ryder scrolled over on his gadget's screen to stop at Chase's logo and pressed it.

"Chase. We will be needing you out there so you can place cones around the Town Hall while we investigate what went on. We might also need your tracking skills. It doesn't seem to be a pretty situation down there." Ryder said.

"Chase is on the case!" Chase replied with enthusiasm.

Ryder scrolled to Marshall's icon and pressed it.

"Marshall. We will be requiring your first aid gear just in case. That's all we need from you." Ryder told him.

"I'm fired up!" Marshall exclaimed in response.

Ryder pocketed his gadget and raised his arm into the air, pointing towards the sky.

"Paw Patrol is on a roll!" he shouted. He began to sprint off and jumped down into a hole that was on the floor inside of the lookout. He hung onto a firefighter's pole as he fell down while looking downwards.

"Ruff! Ruff!" barked Marshall as he ran on his fours towards a slide. He jumped onto it and slid down, landing in his firetruck outside of the lookout. He shouted a "Woohoo!" before starting it up. Soon followed Chase, whom happily laughed as he slid down the slide right after Marshall. He landed perfectly on his police truck. He started it up as well.

The garage door opened behind their vehicles and out came Ryder! Ryder was wearing a motorcycle helmet and was in a dune buggy-like vehicle. He revved his engine and then burst forward past the two pups. Shortly after, both Marshall and Ryder were on his tail. Paw Patrol was off to Town Hall to see what was going on!

Back at the lookout, the garage door remained open... fortunately for a certain pup. With a chuckle and a snort, the canine went inside of the lookout, closing the door behind them.


	2. Chapter 2: Town Hall

The trio drove down the roads swiftly to get to their destination. After a few minutes, they had reached Town Hall and parked their vehicles in front of City Hall.

"What's all of the commotion here, everyone?" Ryder asked, looking around at the area near Town Hall.

The vicinity was trashed with heaps of garbage and other items of waste. There was a lot of smoke in the air and the whole area just seemed a lot much dirtier than what it usually is like.

"What the..." Marshall muttered as he took in what he was seeing.

"R-Ryder, I think we need..." Chase started.

"Yeah, I'm on it, Chase. Thanks." Ryder interrupted, though not in a rude way. Ryder reached into his pocket and pulled out his gadget, and scrolled the screen over to Rocky's recycling symbol badge icon. He pressed the icon. Ryder then spoke into the microphone of his gadget, which broadcasted directly to Rocky's collar.

"Rocky, I need you over at Town Hall right away with your recycling tools. There's a lot of garbage and... just flat out litter here that needs to be dealt with." Ryder explained to Rocky.

"Ruff! Green means GO!" Rocky replied into his own microphone.

Ryder scrolled over to Rubble's iron wrench icon and pressed it.

"Rubble, I'll be needing you and your construction tractor over at Town Hall as well. I'll need your help getting all of the waste out here into Rocky's machine." Ryder told Rubble.

Rubble nodded his head. "Rubble on the double!" he replied. Rubble seemed more than happy to do it.

With that, Ryder tucked his gadget away into his pocket and hopped off of his ATV.

"Alright, Marshall, you come with me. Chase, supervise Rubble and Rocky when they get here and make sure to point them in the right direction. Also, while you're at it, set out some cones in front of the Town Hall's entrance so no one can get in," ordered Ryder. "This situation seems serious, and I just think it's best if no one can access the inside of the building right now until we've taken a further look into what exactly went on earlier," Ryder explained.

"Chase is on the case!" shouted Chase. Chase went to his police truck and began to pull out orange cones, and laid them out in an orderly fashion in front of the entrance.

"Good work, Chase. Marshall and I will only be a moment. Priority rests on finding the Mayor, but for now, we need to get all of this... trash out of here. Good luck!" shouted Ryder as he ran off to the insides of the Town Hall building, with Marshall right behind him.

Inside of Town Hall was unfortunately under the same situation as the exterior. The insides looked very worn down and the floors were scattered with various types of litter.

Ryder took out his gadget and continued walking through the dark and trashed walls of the Town Hall's interior.

"Uh, Rocky. Make sure you guys get the insides too, please. It seems whatever happened outside also got the inside messed up as well." Ryder informed him.

"Are you doing okay back there Marshall?" asked Ryder, looking back at the dalmatian pup who was having a little difficulty crossing over and climbing the trash and clutter that made traveling through the Town Hall's insides hard for a pup.

"I'm managing- woah!" Marshall slipped and began to slide down the hall on a trash bag, flailing as much as he could on the moving trash bag. After a few moments, Marshall finally crashed, hitting the wall chest first.

"Haha, woah, are you okay Marshall?" chuckled Ryder. He knew he was okay, knowing how clumsy he was, this had to be something Marshall experienced every day.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright, hehe..." giggled Marshall in return. Marshall got onto his fours and looked around. His gaze paused down the hall to his left. "Isn't that the Mayor's office?" he asked.

"Let me see," Ryder said, walking forward to Marshall. He stopped and turned to face the left hall, and saw a brown door with a golden knob on it. In the center of the door was a gold plate that read, "Mayor Goodway".

"Certainly looks like it, Marshall, good work!" complimented Ryder. Ryder walked forward until he was in front of the Mayor's door. Sighing, he gripped the door and turned it... only to find it was locked.

Ryder knocked on the door but to no response. He put his ear to the door in hopes of hearing something, but to no avail.

"Hrm..." muttered Ryder, and he put one of his hands to his chin while he thought, watching the door. "I got an idea," he said, lowering his arm. "Marshall, I need your hydro cannon. Let's cut out this lock," suggested Ryder, though it was more of a command than proposing an idea, Marshall was happy to give his best either way.

"I'm ready for a ruff-ruff rescue!" Marshall responded with a nod. He then stood in front of the office door and shouted, "Ruff-ruff! Hydro launcher!".

A flap on his backpack opened up to reveal a metal object. It extended out 3 times and formed the shaped of a cannon, with the opening aimed at the doorknob. "Ruff-ruff!" exclaimed Marshall, looking back at his gadget. It shot out a very powerful, thin line of water. The water immediately began to cut through the wood, and Marshall guided the cannon to cut out a box around the doorknob, which caused it to fall out of place and for the lock to be disabled on the door.

"Good work, Marshall! Let's go!" exclaimed Ryder. Ryder then kicked the door open to reveal the inside of Mayor Goodway's office.

It was abandoned, and completely tidy and untouched. On her desk was her pocket chicken, Chickaletta. The chicken quickly turned it's head in one motion to set a gaze on the pair

"Huh," muttered Ryder, stepping into the Mayor's office. "Mayor Goodway?" Ryder called out. "Are you here?" he asked, continuing.

Silence.

"What do you think happened here, Ryder?" asked Marshall, with a look of confusion on his face. "Why was almost everywhere else around Town Hall trashed but the Mayor's office? Most importantly, where is Mayor Goodway?"

Ryder stood quiet, putting a hand to his chin to think yet again. _/This doesn't make sense.../_ he thought. _/None of this makes sense, how can this even happen?/_

"I think it's best we send the pups into Town Hall after everything is cleaned up to do a complete search. Something could have happened, but for now, we'll keep the place on lockdown and create a search for the Mayor. For now, I'll need..." Ryder pulled out his gadget and swiped the screen, scrolling to Chase's icon and pressing it.

"Chase. I'll need you to go around and tell the Town Hall employees that they can go home early for the day. We have an urgent mission that requires for the Town Hall to be empty of all people. Make sure to keep an eye out for the Mayor in that crowd of people leaving." he told Chase.

"Chase is on the case!" responded Chase.

"Great work," added Ryder, and he tucked away his gadget. "Come on Marshall, let's help get that stuff up."

"I'm fired up!" exclaimed Marshall with a smile.

 *************[Later that day...]*************

"Alright, pups, you're all clear to start your search. Great job on the cleaning up. The exterior and interior have both appeared to be clear of any debris. After you search, you pups meet me in front of the lookout. You've all been such good pups." complimented Ryder, giving them all a warm and reassuring smile.

"Good luck in there!" Ryder shouted after the pups as they headed inside.

Ryder then got onto his ATV and began to drive back to the lookout to take care of some small things he had left undone. After a drive of a few minutes, he parked his ATV in front of the lookout to notice the garage door was closed.

"Odd, I never closed that when I left. Usually, it stays open. Perhaps one of the pups did it, no worries." he told himself, walking over to the door and raising it up. Ryder then got onto his ATV and drove it inside of the lookout's garage, parking it and then getting up onto his feet to walk over to the door, and shut it completely.

Upstairs, a certain feminine canine was roaming around inside the lookout, searching through the things.

"Well, well," said a female's voice in a British Royal accent. "Seems we have some secrets the Paw Patrol doesn't tell anyone, oh boy, this is too good." she cooed, holding some letters and pictures in her paws. She quickly commanded her pincer claw to grab the items she had found, and retracted them inside of her backpack, smiling back at it.

"Juicy, oh so juicy," she murmured, pacing around the room in excitement. That's when she heard the elevator ding, and her excitement quickly faded into a dark feeling of fear.

"Wh-What?! I didn't know the Paw Patrol was returning so early! Every time I've watched them, they returned at least 2 hours from now. What gives, what makes TODAY so special? Ugh!" she spat out, with a look of frustration and disgust on her face. Regardless, she knew herself that not even she could take on the entirety of the Paw Patrol by her lonesome.

She hid behind a pile of Paw Patrol pillows, remaining silent as Ryder walked into the lookout, sitting down in front of the computer hub, booting one of them up.

"You'll see, Paw Patrol, that you don't just do this stuff without expecting for the favor to return to you..." said the canine, whispering under the pillows.

"Hrm, well then. When the pups get back we'll have to go through their inspection. Their bags are quite old, and they definitely need an upgrade." he told himself. "Though the pups have been working so very much in the past few weeks, so I think they all deserve a well-earned break for a few days. I'll talk to them about perhaps letting them visit and stay at a fancy hotspot nearby sometime," he said, although not talking to anyone but himself. "One more thing, however, is to make sure that I get these files out of the system before things get tricky. I better have Rocky help me with it later, he knows about all of that stuff..." Ryder continued, now just muttering at this point.

After a few minutes, Ryder got up from the desk and took the elevator down from the lookout. Within a few seconds, Sweetie the royal pup of Barkingburg came out from the pillow pile.

"Ahh, finally he's gone," Sweetie said with bliss in her voice. The female's white fur coat glistened in the light, and atop her feral head sat the Royal Crown of Barkingburg, meaning that Sweetie was, once again, the 'queen' of Barkingburg.

"So what's this about some tricky files!" she exclaimed to herself, walking over to where Ryder was seated before. She hopped up onto the desk chair and sat down in it, scooting it closer to the desk with the computers on it. She put a paw on the mouse and worked the keyboard with the other, digging through the files that Ryder mentioned.

"Wow," she muttered with a dark smirk. "This is too good," she laughed and pulled out a flash drive from her backpack, shoving it into the USB drive. Slowly, the files began to download into Sweetie's drive. "This is what happens when you mess with me, Paw Patrol," she growled.

With a look of triumph on her face, she took her flash drive out when the downloading completed. As a result, the files were no longer on the computers. She walked over to a small desk with a picture frame on top of it.

She looked at the picture inside of the frame. The picture showed the Paw Patrol as a group. Underneath the picture frame (which she took quickly and tucked it away), was a midnight blue leather book, bound together with red binding and a leather strand that kept the book closed. On the cover of the book read, 'Journal'.

She opened up the book and began to go through the pages. Her face flushed with pink from what was written inside of the journal.

 _/What's all this about, who's-/_ she thought, but suddenly realized. On the bottom of every page, was signed a name...

"Chase," she cooed, licking her lips in delight. She giggled and turned to face the lookout's elevator.

"Oh boy, this will be fantastic," she smirked darkly, and taking the journal with her, as well as the other things that she had taken earlier from the lookout, she began to pad out of the room, her white cheeks clearly showing evidence of a soft pink blush. Something was on Sweetie's mind, and that something is a big plan. A plan to put the Paw Patrol out of the running... though, not without a little move with Chase beforehand.

"I can just wait in Chase's room until the dark time then, and we'll see what he has to say about my wonderful offer." she told herself.

With that, Sweetie walked off into Chase's room, closing the door behind her and plopping down onto his bed with her hind legs straight out.

"Ah, royalty. Can I ever get enough of the good stuff?" she sighed in relaxation before closing her eyes with her paws resting on her chest while she laid on her back.


	3. Chapter 3: Plan In Action

The elevator at the lookout slowly drifted downwards towards the Earth, with Ryder inside of it. Little did he know that there was an intruder that he left behind inside of the lookout.

Ryder stepped out of the elevator once the doors slid open. Out front to greet him were the six Paw Patrol members, playing and wrestling in the grass.

"Pups, at attention," Ryder said.

The pups stopped playing and giggling to race to Ryder, and stood in front of him in a horizontal line. They all stared up at him.

"Yes, Ryder?" asked Chase, tilting his head.

"Thanks for coming here. I see you're done with the search. What were the results?" asked Ryder, opening up a small notebook and placing a pen to the clean paper pad.

"Well sir," Chase spoke up first, improving his posture before continuing. "I looked through the halls on my own, and with my tracking skills, I picked up a few things that could be valuable information," he explained, looking up at Ryder, though not getting a returned gaze since Ryder was busy writing down on the pad.

"Right, go on," said Ryder, taking note.

"So firstly, I found the Mayor's purse. It seems that someone was with the Mayor. I can't pin a name on it, but I do have the scent, and the scent seems to go outside of Town Hall and follows the road out of town. The purse is right here," with that being said, Chase dug into his backpack and pulled out the Mayor's purse. Chickaletta was inside of it, clucking. It clearly was oblivious as to what was going on, nor did it seem to really care.

"I put Chickaletta in the purse because that's where it usually is," Chase added. He gripped the purse in his teeth and walked over to Ryder, dropping it at his feet.

"Right, thanks, Chase. Good work today." Ryder complimented, giving Chase a dog treat. Chase ruffed happily and accepted the treat, walking off on his fours to lay down in the grass, chewing his treat.

"Does anyone else have anything they would like to share? Any progress reports on the search?" Ryder asked, with his arms crossed as he looked over the remaining five pups.

"Well, I don't think anyone else does, but... I saw something." said a pup. However, it was not one of the five.

A pup with pink fur stepped out of the lookout. Ryder turned around to face the pup that came towards them.

"What, wait, who are you? How did you get into the lookout?" asked Ryder.

"You see, I'm really sorry for going inside, I figured that was where I could find the Paw Patrol. I did not know you were not there, so I went in and came right out." said the pup.

"Is that so? I guess you must have come in right after I left... well, what happened, anyway? What's this you want to share with us?" Ryder asked the pup.

The pup looked up at Ryder. The pup had on a pink vest suit, and her fur was a rose pink. Her eyes were purple. Something about this pup's gaze and suit seemed familiar to Ryder, however, he could not put a finger on where he'd seen those eyes before.

"...I'd rather take this elsewhere if you don't mind..." muttered the pup, glancing over towards Chase.

Ryder looked at the pup, then over at where she was looking at.

"Um, just speak low, I'm sure you'll be fine. What is it?" Ryder asked, clearly concerned.

"Well, here's what happened. I was around town when I heard the... Mayor? She seemed really frantic, and I was out on a walk with my owner, so I could not really do anything. I didn't have my tools with me. So I watched from afar, whimpering, and that's when I saw Mayor Humdinger approach the Mayor with a mean look. He took her into a dark purple car and drove off. This was all before

"Now, later on, today, I was really concerned. I didn't see the Mayor anywhere. So I lurked around town, hoping to find an answer to something when I saw... Chase! He was with Mayor Humdinger, though I didn't find the purple car anywhere. I only saw him and Chase talking behind a bush. I swear. I don't know if you'll believe me, but that's what I saw." finished the pup.

"Woah Woah Woah, hold it. That's impossible. Chase was with me the whole..." Ryder paused, thinking. "Well, he was left on his own to complete a search, and he did say he went to do it on his own... but that's not Chase. He would never do that." Ryder told the pup sternly, watching the pup's eyes.

"Right, it must have been a different pup that looked like Chase I suppose, I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions. I best go before my owner finds me out of the house, though," said the pup. She quickly dashed off, running out of sight. "Come on, now, Busby, hurry!" she muttered back, the toy frog following her quickly from the reception signal off of her collar.

 _/Perfect, now that the seed of doubt is planted in all of the Paw Patrol's heads, time to make my second move... after taking this pink fur dye off./_ the pup thought.

She turned around and went to the back of the lookout, proceeding to go up onto the slide, climbing up it with difficulty. She had managed to eventually make her way back inside. All while Chase knew nothing of her visit; he was too busy focusing on his delicious treat.

Ryder glanced over at Chase and stared at him, deep in thought.

"Ryder, you don't really believe that Chase is involved with Mayor Goodway being missing, do you?" Skye asked, stepping forward.

"...No. Of course not, Skye." Ryder replied though he wasn't too sure at this point. Chase wasn't with him during the timeframe of this accusation, but even so, he knew Chase would never do something like that. _/Who was that pup anyway? I never saw a pink pup around Adventure Bay.../_ he thought to himself, his hand on his chin.

 _/No, something just doesn't add up,/_ he thought more, shaking his head. _/Well, it's getting late anyway, I better close up the lookout./_

"Alright, pups, this case is definitely bigger than any of our old ones. We're calling this Mission PAW: Find the missing Mayor!" Ryder shouted, pointing to the sky.

The pups barked in confidence, determined for the mission.

"You got it, Ryder! We'll find her!" shouted Marshall.

"Yeah, Rubble on the double!" added Rubble.

"I'm sure the Mayor couldn't have gone too far," said Rocky.

"Of couwse, no way the Mayow could have. We got this!" encouraged Zuma.

"Ruff!" barked Skye, clearly she was excited.

Chase was snoring, he was asleep.

All the pups laughed when they heard Chase snoring. "Oh, Chase!" Skye giggled out.

"Okay pups, here are your treats. You were all such good pups today. Time to rest. Once you guys go in I'll lock up the lookout. Be ready to work more on the missing Mayor case tomorrow." Ryder said, smiling at them all.

"Thanks, Ryder!" the pups shouted as Ryder threw five treats at the pups, each one getting a single treat. They devoured them quickly, and it was gone as fast as they had received them.

"This way, pups," Ryder said, gesturing with his hand. Chase was still asleep. Giggling, Skye quickly ran over to Chase's limp body and put two paws on his side, shaking him violently.

"Chase, you silly, get up!" Skye exclaimed, laughing as she rocked him back and forth.

"Ugh, yeah, yeah, I'm getting up..." Chase tiredly groaned, getting onto his fours.

"Time to go inside Chase!" added Skye. She wiggled her hips and wagged her tail in amusement as he rose to his fours.

Chase nodded and walked over to the elevator with the rest of the pups. The sliding glass door closed and the elevator rose up into the lookout. As the platform passed the big paw patrol logo, the logo shone in the evening sun and when the elevator passed the logo, the pups were undressed into their collars only.

As the pups were upstairs and chatting before bedtime, Ryder began to lock up the lookout, closing the garage door and activating the lock on the elevator. Unfortunately, Ryder was only locking in the problem, not keeping it out.

Ryder went upstairs through a special staircase and had entered his room. He pulled out his gadget and pressed the button to broadcast a message, "Goodnight pups, good work." to the pups' pup tags. He shut off his gadget, placed it on the nightstand to charge, and got undressed to put on his pajamas. With that, he laid down and shut his eyes. The only thing on his mind was where the Mayor could possibly be, and if Chase had really known something about the situation.

 _/That's impossible,/_ was Ryder's last thought before zoning out, asleep.

 *******[In the other room]*******

"Hey guys, what do you think happened to the Mayor?" asked Rubble.

"I don't know..." commented Marshall. He stood on his four paws. "I mean, you guys did hear what Ryder and that one pup were talking about, right?" he asked the others. This time, however, Chase heard him.

"What pup?" Chase asked, turning to face Marshall. The other pups looked up at Marshall.

"Uh, well, um," Marshall started, but couldn't find the right words to finish. "W-Well..." he stuttered, kicking the floor with his paw. "A mysterious pup approached Ryder and was telling him something. I was just asking the others if they had heard anything, but I guess they didn't... Did you, guys?" Marshall smiled, turning to the pups once more.

"N-No," stuttered Skye, avoiding Chase's eyes.

"Nope!" said Rubble, though he seemed nervous.

"Yeah, no," Rocky added.

"..." Zuma didn't reply, but simply stood quietly.

"Oh." was all Chase had to say.

"Yeah..." Marshall looked away, feeling awkward. No words were spoken after that ordeal.

"Right, I'm going to bed. Good night, guys," sighed Chase, knowing something was up. He began to walk over to his room door with his head down, sulking all the way to the door.

"Night Chase," the others said as he walked away. They felt bad about having to lie to him, but they knew it was for the best.

Chase opened his room door and walked inside, shutting and locking it behind him.

Suddenly, a net had fallen over his body, pinning him down to the floor. Almost immediately afterward, an old plush toy was shoved into his maw, gagging him and preventing the canine from being able to bark or shout.

"Mmph?!" Chase shouted muffledly. He squirmed under the net and looked around in the dark frantically, wondering what was going on.

"It's so nice to be able to see you again, Chase," said a British Royal voice. The lights flicked on to reveal Sweetie the royal pup, her fur stained with small pink spots, and atop her head rested the crown of Barkingburg.

"Mmf- Shmeeite?" exclaimed Chase, however it was muffled to the point where it was barely audible.

"Yes! It is I, the royal pup, Sweetie," she bloated in a sweet voice, running a paw along her neck. She certainly was acting fabulous.

"So Chase, let's get down to business. I'm going to take that toy plushie out of your mouth. If you decide to shout for help or bark, so help me, you will regret it," she threatened, pulling out his journal. She mockingly held it in her paw, waving it around with a dark smirk across her face. "I'm sure this explains what will happen if you DO decide to be an idiot," she added, laughing. Her laugh ended with a snort.

The situation hit Chase hard. He felt the wind knock out of his chest and his heart stopped at the sight of Sweetie with his journal. He had spilled his deepest, darkest secrets in there, simply because he had nowhere else to release them. The fact that another being had read this, and can expose it all, was enough for Chase to do anything to prevent that.

Chase nodded.

"Good boy," she teased, walking forward to rip the toy out of his mouth. She kept the net down on him and looked into his eyes with a fierce expression.

"Listen, po-po," she growled, glaring downwards at the German Sheppard. "This is exactly what happens when you spoil my plans. Just like you did at Barkingburg. Isn't that right, Busby?" she turned her head to see the robotic toy frog lying lifelessly on the floor. "Oh, come on!" she wailed with an inside voice, slapping her collar with a paw. The toy suddenly jumped up and came to life, which satisfied Sweetie enough to put a smile on her face.

"I have a deal for y- I mean, WE, have a deal for you," she said, motioning to Busby. "I'm going to raise your net, too, that way we can really get into the details," she cooed. "However if you decide to pull a fast one, no worries. I can just tell the rest of the paw patrol about your dark secrets. We both know how you feel about... hehe..." she smiled an evil smile, tucking his journal away.

Chase looked distressed but complied with a nod. He knew there was no room for defiance here.

"Good boy, I guess Ryder taught you when you can't win." she mocked, raising the net with the push of a button.

Chase rose to his four legs, glaring at Sweetie with a furious glare. "How did you even get in here, Sweetie? Don't you know when enough is enough, anyway?" asked Chase in an aggressive tone, growling under his breath.

"Maybe," she giggled. "But let's just say this place isn't as secure as you guys should have it. I also managed to get my paws on the main database of the Paw Patrol, take a look!" she pulled out her golden flash drive and tossed it up in the air, catching it in her teeth.

"Well, of course, you can't, so you'll have to take my word for it," she added, tucking the drive away. "Now then, down to business. We both are really sure you don't want your journal's secrets revealed to the others, and I have some things I want from you..." she said, smirking. "You see, Barkingburg isn't big enough for a pup like me, that's why I need more..." she murmured, gazing off out the window.

"What are you talking about?! Barkingburg is big enough. Stop being selfish." Chase growled in retaliation.

"I suggest _you_ stop being rude. Bow down to your princess, mutt," she growled back. Her eyes showed the burning rage she felt towards Chase.

"I'd rather bow down to a cat," Chase said, keeping his glare strong.

"So be it..." she said, walking past him. "I'll be meeting you soon, Chase," she added. She let her tail stroke against his face as she passed him, and she left the room without a word.

"Ugh, BUSBY!" she shouted back, a clicking noise audible in the distance. The toy came to life in Chase's room and whizzed out of the room after Sweetie. "Let's get out of here before anyone sees us," said Sweetie, going down the elevator with her Busby.

"Ugh, geez..." groaned Chase once the royal pup left, burying his face into his front paws. He was very stressed, and his heart felt like an empty pit of fear and anxiety. _/She knows... holy.../_ was all he could think of. _/Why sweetie, why her... She's going to ruin me.../_ he thought.

Chase walked onto his bed and curled up, hugging himself. He could do nothing but fear the unknown of what Sweetie would pull.

After a few moments had passed, Chase had fallen asleep, with tears streaming down his cheeks.

 *******[The next morning...]*******

"Chase..." said a sweet voice. Something was shaking him. Not something, but someone... Who?

Chase opened his eyes.

"Chase, you're up." the voice said. It was a very soft voice. Chase had opened up his eyes to Skye, the female cockapoo, resting her paws on his chest as she sat beside him in bed.

"Ryder and the others went on a mission. I came in here because you were making noises. Were you having a nightmare?" she asked. She backed off of his bed and sat on the floor beside of it, looking at him curiously.

"Huh, a nightmare? No. It's nothing, don't worry about it," he quickly said, looking away from the pup.

"Chase..." she sighed, tilting and leaning her head towards where he was looking, eyeing him in sympathy. "We all are a part of this team. We all need to be helping one another. I told Ryder to leave you and me behind because I knew something was up. I don't think the others caught on yet." she explained.

"Well," Chase began. "I'm really okay, I guess I just did have a nightmare is all," he said, smiling at the cockapoo. "Honest," he added.

Skye watched his eyes. Her eyes were full of sympathetic pity, and she kept the eye contact for a bit before nodding. She smiled back weakly, and walked out of his room, shutting the door behind her.

"You'd have thought the flirt would never leave, huh?" teased Sweetie, coming in from the window.

"Oh, it's you," Chase said, glancing towards her. "Have you decided to finally ruin my life?" he asked, his ears flapped down limp.

"Oh no, I just came to give you a gift," she said, smiling. She held his journal in her teeth and walked closer to him.

"M-My journal? But why? I thought you-" he started, but she got closer and closer. Sweetie wasn't eyeing Chase, however, she was eyeing the door.

"Now Busby," she muttered. The toy robot frog whizzed into the door, opening it and spilling over a basket of toys. This created a lot of racket.

Sweetie stared through the walls with her now green eyes. She smirked as her plan now had just been put into place. Time to put the finishing touch in!

Sweetie walked up to Chase with his journal in her maw, and she stood over him. Quickly she dropped the journal into his lap and leaned forward, kissing the German Sheppard on his lips.

As if right on cue, Skye had walked into the room. The first thing she saw was Chase, the Paw Patrol's second in command, kissing the Barkingburg criminal, Sweetie.


End file.
